The stormy weather happened to be outside Sunset Center Monday evening, January 19, as the Monterey County Symphony under the direction of Clark Suttle presented its third concert of the season.
Inside the hall there was relative calm as soloist Glenn Dicterow lead us through a rather placid and uninvolved reading of the Beethoven Violin Concerto. Technically there was little to fault, for he obviously has the violinistic skills needed to surmount the Concerto’s difficulties, and his intonation was fine, especially in the difficult harmonics.
But what was lacking was the soaring conviction of inevitable phrasing that often convinces a listener that the performance they are hearing represents the only way to play the work. In this concerto the violin part often decorates melodies in a remarkable way, but in this performance it somehow missed. In the slow movement Dicterow produced some fine playing, but in the final movement which can be an inspiring romp to its conclusion, it lacked energy and drive and ended up like a glass of stale beer. And the audience knew it, for there was no standing ovation, but instead rather polite applause.
After intermission we heard two lightweight works (it was sort of like listening to KBOQ): Joachim Turina’s
Danzas fantásticas and Copland’s
El salón México. The Three Turina pieces are not often heard on concert programs and thus are something of a novelty. They received energetic and professional performances under Suttle’s direction and they provided an impressive showcase for members of the Monterey County Symphony.
Before the final Copland work, Mr. Suttle addressed the audience and said that not only was Copland was inspired by a trip to Mexico to write this work, but Suttle himself was bringing the inspiration of one of his own trips to Mexico to this performance. Suttle reminisced about how Mariachi bands played a little out of tune, but after several drinks the players sounded better and better and the girls looked prettier and prettier. Suttle had advised members of the orchestra to emulate the amateurish Mariachi players and thus we had a little humor injected into the Copland not intended by the composer.
El salón México sounds a little like
Billy the Kid with hot sauce, but it received a rousing performance by the orchestra.
Mention needs to be made of the passing of Dr. Louise Cuyler who for many years has written very professional program notes for the Monterey County Symphony. A gentle woman with a tremendous store of knowledge about every facet of music, her notes always were a distinguished addition to Monterey County Symphony programs. In the current program, the notes on the Beethoven Concerto were written by Dr. Cuyler while the remainder were written by Symphony Manager, Joseph Truskot. Mr. Truskot is to be congratulated for stepping into the breach at the last moment and providing us with the remainder of the notes. However, he needs to check his facts more carefully. Issac Albeniz was not a victim of the sinking of the Luisitania in 1915. In fact, he died in 1909 of Bright’s disease. it was Enrique Granados who in 1915 went down with the steamship Sussex which was torpedoed in the English Channel by a German U-boat.
The Monterey County Symphony’s next performance will be on February 15,16,17 and will feature Fauré’s Pavanne, Mendelssohn’s “Reformation” Symphony and the Mozart Requiem.
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